The Great Missing Downspout Conspiracy

[Rich Winsor]

The concept seemed simple enough; add some downspouts to the gutters that the software generates when it builds the roof planes. With this in mind off I go to the library to see what is available in the way of downspouts. Well, it turns out that there are no downspouts to be had in the installed core catalogs. No big deal, now I’m off to the website to check out the bonus catalogs. There I find a category for “water supply & drainage” that has a minimal collection of downspouts, elbows and offsets among other things. I download the file to my bonus catalog folder in the library and set about building a downspout on one end of my gutter. After about four hours of wheedling and cajoling and numerous invective laden outbursts I was finally able to coax the downspout shown in image #1 out of the software. But alas, it was a Pyrrhic victory. When I rotated around the corner of the building to check out the downspout from the side view the upper offset has a bulge in it that looks like a python that just ate a pig (see image #2). There is no apparent way to correct this bulge with the limited number of editing options for the offset. Not to be daunted I hied it back to the website to check out the sample and user galleries to see how other users had tackled the downspout problem. Imagine my dismay when I was unable to find even one instance where downspouts had been included in the offered renderings. Is drawing a downspout such a hassle that everyone has decided to forgo the thankless task completely?